The water‐energy nexus at the hybrid bioenergy supply chain: A sustainable network design model

• Published in: Ecological indicators Vol. 119; p. 106799
• Main Authors: Mahjoub, Niloufar, Sahebi, Hadi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2020
• Subjects: air pollution; animal manures; biomass; case studies; energy; energy costs; fossil fuels; GIS technique; Hybrid second-/third-generation biomass; hybrids; Jatropha; mathematical models; microalgae; model validation; Multi-objective optimization; supply chain; Sustainable bioenergy supply network design; sustainable development; Water-energy nexus; Hybrid second-/third-generation biomass; Multi-objective optimization; Sustainable bioenergy supply network design; Water-energy nexus; GIS technique
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106799

[Display omitted] •Elaborating a multi-objective model to design a sustainable bioenergy supply network.•Considering the hybrid 2nd/3rd generation biomasses as clean energy resources.•Studying the water-energy nexus concept at this hybrid biomass supply network model.•Developing a sustainable GIS-based model to identify suitability map of Jatropha.•Verifying the efficiency of the proposed model by analyzing a real case study. Nowadays, the fossil fuel price fluctuations are high, their doubtless exhaustion is distressing, air pollution is a severe problem, and these issues seriously threaten the global economy. Bioenergy is a significant alternative source, with positive environmental, social, and economic impacts, that can reduce the world’s heavy dependence on fossil fuels. As a result, the importance of the design, implementation, and management of bioenergy supply chains have increased in recent years. This research, hence, is aimed to develop a bioenergy supply chain network design (BSCND) model to study the hybrid second (i.e., Jatropha; agricultural residues; and livestock manure) and third (i.e., microalgae) generations of biomass. Since water and energy are two momentous sources for sustainable development of societies where the increasing demand has become a worldwide concern, the water-energy nexus concept is another subject discussed in this study. And since sustainability is another issue to be dealt with in modern energy supply chains, a multi-objective sustainable mathematical model is developed in this study to present. A three-echelon sustainable hybrid bioenergy supply chain model has been proposed with four objective functions that minimize the total cost, reduce the environmental impacts, maximize the energy production, and minimize the water consumption to produce bioenergy. The GIS-based model, also, has been used to form a suitability map of Jatropha/microalgae cultivation. Results of a case study conducted to show the model performance using the MINMAX goal programming method. It has revealed that producing energy from microalgae/Jatropha is more viable compared to agricultural residues and livestock manure.